The Daughter
by Inkwellspoken
Summary: Over two decades after the fire nation's defeat, and the disappearance of her princess, a group of earth kingdom rebels seek retribution. In a bloody hunt for descendants of the fire nation the group captures a girl bearing an uncanny resemblance to the missing Princess Azula. Her identity will be a revelation with consequences spanning all three kingdoms. Eventual OC x Bumi.
1. Chapter 1

Raika knelt on a welcome mossy patch to examine the exact shade of the plant's leaves. The purplish tinge was almost right, but there was suspect bleaching occurring near the stems. She desperately needed the plant to be bugleherb. It was the last ingredient in a sleeping potion she was otherwise prepared to mix. _Please_, Raika silently begged the buds, _please just turn a little more purple_. Maybe the rainy season had neglected this patch of forest? Maybe the rains couldn't seep through the heavy underbrush that even now was poised to strangle the maybe bugleherb.

"Rai, darling, we're losing daylight." Raika's energy had been entirely focused on begging the plant to shift a shade or two and she had not heard Xan's approach. She jolted backward at his voice. Xan had the decency to help her up even if he did not have the decency to help her find this wretched plant.

"Xan, if we don't get the bugleherb today, we'll have to hike all the way back tomorrow." Raika gestured all around before crossing her arms.

"Sure, and if we don't leave the forest now, we won't have to worry about a return because we'll be eaten by a cougar-owl. They're crepuscular animals you know- I read that in your very un-fascinating and very unhelpful book." He gestured to the cover of _The Four Kingdoms in Nature: Flowers, Herbs, and Deadly Beasts _currently slipping out of the fold of Raika's satchel.

She was unimpressed. "If you followed it through to the ending, which you never do," Raika hoped this was sounding as much a reading critique as a life metaphor, "then you would recall the section on deadly beasts included a healthy number of beastly plants: cannibalius callalillies, incubating iris, necro palms-."

"Yes, yes, quite right and all the more reason to take our leave m'day." Xan swept his arms and bowed down to Raika then pivoted, arms outstretched, toward the trail. Raika stilled into a glare, the corners of her eyes dipping. She fixed Xan is a withering look. He straightened and ran a hand through his ebony curls, which only jostled them into further perfection.

"Alright, I'm sorry." He now reached out to her. "It was joke. I know you don't like laughs about titles or nobility or anything fun really, but I wasn't thinking. And truly, it is time to leave. Mozu's asleep in flower bead of potentially beastly plants." He gestured over to little boy snuggled with a patch wildflowers hugging the trail.

Raika flicked her gaze across Xan's face, unforgiving.

"Agni, you're eyes are really gold. Like piercing. Steely, gilded steel. A light rusted steel." His tone was light, as always. Xan carried his attitude and his body perpetually poised to tell or receive some debaucherous joke. Even when standing solitary, he gave the appearance of leaning languidly against some ridiculous wall or backdrop, like a model from Republic City, body curving into an easy smile. Typically, nothing bored Xan. He was always manifesting humor in the most dull of characters, tugging people out of their comforts. Most were more than happy to be swept of into Xan's little comedy, and the few that resisted became the punchline of inside jokes with Raika. This hike, however, seemed to have undone him. He gestured again down the path.

"If you think this is helping your cause," _then you are mortally mistaken_, Raika finished in her head. But she could also see the waning sun, turning ochre in Mozu's black mop of hair. It was nearing the four year old's bedtime and they would now need to factor in how the long the hike down would take trading off giving him piggy back rides. Raika loved open spaces, loved the mountains, the sea, the sounds of unbridled winds and brooks. And she loved night night most of all, feeling herself hum to the star's bursting beats. And the moon...

But she also never lost her head for practicality. Especially given that there were scores of people who would delight in literally seeing her lose her head. And Xan was right, any longer in the mountains was not a clever idea.

"The plants are just difficult to distinguish with all the underbrush," Raika began. "There is so much foliage. Without a controlled burn, everything is overgrown and the plants on the floor are drying out." It went unspoken that the final controlled burn would have been well over two decades ago when the fire nation last occupied their Earth Kingdom colonies. Nowadays, everyone was very jumpy around anything to do with fire- even if their forests and fields suffered for it.

"Here, come look at these leaves." Raika waved Xan down to peer at the plant. She hoped her voice communicated a sense of _yes, we're leaving but please help your dear friend with one last good faith effort_. "Do you see how they lighten toward the stem? I can't tell if that's a natural shade or if it's just nutrient deficiency." Xan made an incredibly obvious eye roll before lowering himself level with her. He had difficulty with outright apologies and Raika knew he would humor her whims for the next hour or so as penance for the m'lady falter.

Xan studied the leaves, reaching out to them before Raika intercepted his hand with warning tuts: beware the beastly plants. "I think it's a natural color. I mean, the whole thing is off. It's all too faded," Xan reasoned.

"No, no the color toward the tips is correct, see?" Raika showed him the bugleherb drawing from the _Four Kingdoms in Nature_.

"Raika, no," Xan ground out the vowel sound longer than was polite.

"What?"

"You've said all day we're looking for a purple plant. This drawing is clearly of a mauve plant."

"Isn't that a shade of purple? I don't see how it matters."

"Well first, if you're going to be healer-."

"_If _I'm going to be a healer?" Raika quirked an unrelenting left brow.

"_As _a healer, you're going to have to be more precise about the nuances. And furthermore, this is the exact shade of the curtains I wanted for our living room and you rejected them as having a 'ghastly pallor.'"

"Alright, so look for the plants with the ghastly pallor then."

"No, the point is I've buggered off from dozens of purple plants today. We need to scrap it and return tomorrow."

Raika didn't give Xan the satisfaction of looking at him nor indicating any kind of assent as she stood, dusting off the knees of her overdress. She eventually let out a complacent sigh and asked if Xan wanted the first Mozu carrying shift.

"Yes, fine. Here we go little man." Xan tenderly cupped a palm under Mozu's head and then cradled the child into his arms. Mozu did not even stir. At least Raika knew the insomnia plaguing the village, and thereby plaguing her healing business, did not rattle Mozu in the least. There had been many late night and early morning knocks on their door. Patients all claiming an inability to sleep because of a high pitched buzz and slight tremors in the ground. Neither phenomenon had reached Raika, Xan, and Mozu's home on the outskirts of the town limits. Raika suspected a toxin in the water as the only plausible explanation and had asked Xan to boil their water to such a heat the pots groaned. She would cool it quickly when he was finished. Raika advised the villagers to do the same but there was no alleviation of nighttime visitors. Moreover, her sleeping potion stores had run dry and the herbs were difficult to find this close to the Earth Kingdom coasts.

Xan, carrying Mozu in front of him, navigated the path down with a quick sureness. Raika followed behind him, still covertly scouring her periphery for purple- mauve- leaves. But the light was leaving and Raika resigned herself to another trip up the cliff side and into the woods tomorrow. And another evening of patients she was quickly running out of beds for.

The trio passed a secluded lookout point, cupped on all sides with a jagged rock face. They paused only a moment to watch the sun dancing on the horizon line, before continuing out of sight.

* * *

At the little family's retreat a boulder began to quake, pulling loose from the surrounding rocks. The boulder, however, was not taken by gravity. Instead, it hovered upward and unmoving before two men slipped out from behind it. It thudded back onto the ground resolutely.

The men were bulky, as if carved from the same cliff as the stone they used for concealment. They had wide set eyes with stocky shoulders and square jaws. The men's muscles were sculpted in anticipation of soldiering, but any war to fight in was long over.

The taller of the pair spoke first. "What do you reckon? I think the lanky guy was muttering 'Agni' every time the girl stopped to look at a flower."

"They have the complexion. Pale and dark hair, all of them."

"I don't know, the girl seemed darker skinned."

"Even the fire nation will tan if they spend their days outside looking for a fucking bouquet. I saw her eyes, she's fire nation. They all are." His words were biting and eyes stone.

"We will tell the captain and get ready to mobilize tomorrow." The shorter man turned away from his companion, sure in his assessment and surer in his disdain, and leapt down from their hiding place. He would tell the commander. The commander would be pleased. And he would get to see the fire leave three more pairs of stupid eyes, evil eyes, in the morning. Cleansing the world felt nice.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello and welcome to Chapter II. These first few chapters are heavy with original characters, but you can expect to encounter familiar faces soon, I promise. This story will have full involvement from the fire nation royal family, the original Gaang, and some second generation, Legend of Korra, characters. I have tried to be as true to the original material and timeline as possible, with some liberties taken for the sake of this narrative. Ultimately, I wanted to explore, in a grittier way than allowed by Nickelodeon, the ramifications of war in the Avatar universe. And Azula's story was always such a loose end ripe for fanfiction. **

**I apologize for any typos, I try to publish the chapters as soon as possible and sometimes they elude me. **

**The M rating on this story is _warranted _and you have been _warned _before heading into this chapter. **

* * *

The trio returned to their cottage as the stars' brilliance outpaced the royal hues of dusk. Mozu was now on Raika's back while Xan unlocked the front door. It was a worn procedure: Xan, with his impressive stature, always entered the home first. Raika was the second line of defense, with Mozu shielded behind her. Muscle memory navigated Xan's eyes as he tried to discern any unfamiliar shapes in the hollows of space underneath patient's beds or behind the gauzy privacy screens. The group paused to listen for movement, waiting for someone's hair to stand up in warning.

Once Xan nodded the all clear, he stepped past the threshold and brandished his right arm. His fire bending ignited the candles in the room. Raika followed him inside and pivoted immediately to lock the door behind her. She shifted Mozu's weight. He was about the age to be going on play dates, she thought. He'd be invited to other family's homes and dinners soon and Raika wondered how old he would grow before he noticed their family's intricacies were not commonplace. How old before he asked why Lee's family never fed any of their food to their livestock before eating it themselves? Or why other children were allowed to carelessly burst through front doors ahead the adults? Or why no one else removed the paintings, photographs, and decorations from their living room before company?

"Here, I've got him Rai." Xan tugged Mozu from her shoulders. He whimpered at the movement, but did not wake. "I'll take him up to bed."

"Thanks," Raika nodded. Xan left the front room through an arched door on the right wall that separated the clinic from their private living quarters. Past the professionalism of the room lined with six cots, water basins, cabinets of herbs, and a healer's desk lived the family's home. Mozu's drawings hung along the walls next to the odd pieces of art Xan had collected over the years and miles. There were books piled on more books. Xan's carpentry accounted for most of the furniture and his glass blown figurines rested on sills, infused with sunlight.

It was warm and lovely and they liked it that way. Raika made sure there were always fresh flowers in one of her most prized possessions, an antique bronze vase. She was sure it was fire nation and the frieze like motif circling its brim depicted beach scenes. Sun emblems blazed behind figures running though sand dunes and banks. The script on the vase's bottom was difficult to discern, but Raika suspected it proclaimed something about an artist from Ember Island. Raika's mother had always packed the vase across their unyielding and unrelenting moves. Or _runs_, Raika corrected. She had always wondered, and sometimes believed in her mother's better moments, that the vase was more than decoration. That is was a message to Raika herself: "look at the elements together: water and fire, and look at their beauty." But it was reckless to own the vase now in the Earth kingdom. So, while the home was otherwise tidy, a film of dust distorted its carvings, muting its heritage.

Raika's other prized possession, one that was downright careless to display, was strip of four photos taken at a festival. Raika was young in the photos, maybe eight. Her mother would have been twenty-nine. Raika was seated on her mother's lap, secured by an arm roped about her waist. They were both smiling in the first frame, marveling at the new technology. The second frame was more candid. The suddenness of the flash had made them both jump (and her mother's arms tense, hands warming up). But they had quickly recovered into laughter. The third frame was staged with Raika tugging at the corners of her mouth, plump and pouty like her mother's, and her mother's hands plucking her ears out to the side. The fourth frame was a departure. Raika was giggling too hard to remain still and her face was lost in blur. Her mother, however, was unmoving. Her posture was both graceful and severe and her eyes had sought out a point in the lens that made every passerby feel as if her gaze followed. Nevertheless, Raika cherished the strip too much to hide it away from the daylight.

Xan came back into the clinic.

"I think we should investigate electricity. Mozu is starting to ignite candles in his sleep. His nightmares could burn down the entire house."

Raika laughed. "Only the mansions in Republic City have electricity right now, it will be a long time coming before it reaches us. And a longer time coming before my wages are able to reach the costs. Or have you finally decided to be famous artist?" Raiked raised her eyebrows.

"It's regrettable we travel in circles numb to good art. You can't teach good taste."

"I think the villagers might say you can't teach natural talent." Xan made a phsss sound through his lips and waived his hand. Raika, for her part, did genuinely like Xan's art. But so much of it was painful. He'd used an innate mastery of color to communicate sensations or memories without any narrative depictions. They darker pieces hurt Raika to contemplate, elicited a visceral response from somewhere in her chest cavity. Raika and Xan had ceased trying to sell the work upon the realization the villagers intended their darker memories to remain where they buried them. And the wealthier tourists traveling through the villages only wanted quaint depictions of country life.

Raika returned to the issue of Mozu's fire. "We'll just have to be alert- he's not the first child to bend in their dreams."

Xan nodded but added, "most children have not gone through what he's gone through." He pulled out the desk chair and sat down backwards, his arms crossed over the top of the back. His movements were often perfectly princely. Strangers might say his sureness was the natural result of his handsomeness. But in the years Raika had known Xan, she picked up on a dissonance. It was almost like he was the mime of some finer friend, that his movements had been copied and learned.

Xan continued, "his emotions are more ignited, and so too will his bending be." He spoke with his forearms, movements flowing like his bending.

"I know, Xan." Raika pushed herself onto a cot and fell backwards, her dark waves splaying. She pulled her knees up one at time to stretch out her muscles, already tired from tomorrow's return hike. "I'd like to sleep in our own bed tonight. Let's send thoughts out to the town: I wish for you to have sleep. I wish for you to have rest. I wish for you to stay asleep..."

There were two quick and sharp knocks on the front door. Raika threw her arms over eyes and groaned. Xan laughed at her.

"The spirits have never liked you, Rai."

"Har-har." Raika stood on her toes to glance through the door's spy hole, recognizing the town baker. She pulled away and looked back to Xan.

"It's only Tonn, I'm letting him in." Xan nodded.

Raika unlatched the door and opened it, admitting a portly man with finger tips almost as plum colored as the bags under his eyes.

"Tonn." Raika pronounced his name in welcome and in resignation, gesturing him over to a cot.

"Evening, Raika. Xan. Thank you for letting me in." The townspeople were always a little more formal, more distant with Raika and Xan. "I- uh- can't seem to get rest. I thought if I just kept baking tonight I'd tire the old body out, but dozens of berry pies later and well-." He chortled as shrugged. "No luck."

"None." Raika agreed. "Alright, why don't you just have a lie down." Raika took Tonn's elbow and led him toward the first cot. "Seat first on the bed." She patted the cot. "Swing your legs up. Good. Lower yourself down slowly. Excellent, Tonn." Once the man's head became horizontal, his eyelids sank together. Raika exhaled in exasperation. Most of her patient's had done this: came with complaints of insurmountable insomnia and then promptly fell asleep at her clinic.

"Tonn, just let your eyes close and we'll see if you can't get any sleep here tonight." He was already snoring.

"Well, so much for your own bed then," Xan said to Raika. "Do you want me to watch him for you?"

"No, it's alright. I'll take one of the cots." Xan pushed off the chair's back and stood up. He kissed Raika on the forehead, wishing her sweet dreams and disappeared into the family quarters.

Raika curled up on the cot opposite Tonn, watching his chest rise and fall. She still had no concrete idea about what could be causing the sleeping pandemic. No one stopped talking about or trying to explain the buzzing or the tremors. Buzzing inaudible to Raika and Xan and tremors unfelt by the pair. The town was closer to the mountains than their cottage and Raika had wondered if they would happen on miners during their hike today. But there were mines, no miners, no drilling or buzzing of any sort. And no bugleherb. What was the buzzing? What were the tremors? Why was their village ground zero for an as yet unheard of insomnia plague? _We'll know at some point, I suppose. _Raika closed her eyes.

* * *

The morning was bright and clear on the mountain, a mid spring day's crispness punctured by birdsong alone. And tortured shrieks.

"SHUT UP! Just SHUT UP!" Hoppo shouted in the face of a cowering woman. He snarled at her, the ends of his teeth jagged and sharp and mismatched, like he had eaten gravel. The woman only sobbed louder, shielding her face in the crook of her chained arms. "Fine," Hoppo hissed. He sliced the woman's throat. The sobbing turned to gurgling and then to death. _Worthless_, Hoppo noted.

Outside of his tent he could hear the sounds of the camp waking. Pots were being prepared for breakfast, men were clapping each other's backs asking about how their loaned slaves had faired in each other's beds. Hoppo stood and walked outside, moving past the guard stationed at the front of his tent. Bern, he thought the guy's name was. Whatever.

Hoppo smiled at the man. "She had an accident in there."

The guard did not react. Hoppo lunged at him.

Right in Bern's ear he whispered in falsetto, "a bit of a mess." He could see his spittle collecting in the slope of Bern's ear. "You know women."

Hoppo snickered and pulled back abruptly to stare at Bern dead on. He sprang up in an exaggerated gesture of indifference and thorough amusement. Hoppo smiled at Bern with a wildness that split his lips, mania bleeding from his gums.

Then he instantly sobered.

"Clean it up." Hoppo spoke in a bored monotone.

As he walked away from the useless interaction, he bent a pillar of rock to punch Bern in the back. Emphasize his order.

Hoppo meandered around the camp, nodding occasionally at the other men. He liked the comradery. He liked the validation. He was doing man's work. Earth work. Superior work. Spirit's work. Hoppo passed the metal cages where they held the captives. They were kept sedated during the day. While Hoppo knew he could crush any of the fucking roaches, it was better not to even give them the chance to harness Agni's power. It was annoying and tedious work crushing the fingers of a renegade fire bender.

At night, their techniques were more sophisticated. During their most recent trip to Republic City (_hell_, Hoppo dubbed the place) the commander had made contact with some kind of prodigy. An engineering kid. A kid with brains Hoppo would never have and would never respect. The kid a created a kind of anti-bending stick. Some kind of electrical current ran through the rod, singeing the chi points of their fire bending prisoners. The sticks made a fucking awful noise, a buzzing that frayed Hoppo's nerves. Whatever. He couldn't hear them over the women's yells in his bed most nights.

Hoppo set his course toward the commander's tent. He wanted permission to go after the little fire nation family he'd watched in the woods the day before. For Hoppo, this permission was more of a formality. Even if Tei Wang did not grant it, Hoppo wouldn't be deterred in the least.

Hoppo ignored the posted guards as he brushed into Tei Wang's tent. The commander was seated at a wooden table, drinking a cup of tea into which he dunked dried toast. Hoppo carelessly sat down opposite of him.

Tei Wang looked down to stir sugar into the tea. He used his hunting blade to create a current in the water. "Good Moring, Hoppo." Tei Wang did not glance up from his mug as he spoke. Hoppo grunted.

"How may I help you?" The commander sat the blade down.

"I saw fire nation in the woods yesterday. I want to bring them back."

"Ah." Tei Wang added more sugar to the tea as he picked his knife back up. "We are here to sell, not collect, Hoppo."

Hoppo did not react. He could not be bothered to process words that were of no use to him.

"Hoppo, there are no reports of fire nation persons in this territory. It was largely un-colonized during the war. It saw few battles. There would be no left over colonizers or bastard children of fire nation soldiers." He paused. "All this information you would, of course, know if you had been present at the strategy meeting yesterday."

Again, Hoppo did not care to hear.

"We are here for supplies before we move on to the buyers in Omashu. The customers are expecting our goods and we cannot humor every one of your dalliances. This would not be the first time you've imagined gold eyes or pale skin."

"Ping will tell you he saw the same as I."

Tei Weng sighed and sat his mug down. He looked up at Hoppo for the first time. But Hoppo had not been waiting to receive his attention at all. He was staring off into the recesses of the tent.

"No women again, commander?" Hoppo was distrustful of the commander.

"It is not a pleasant activity for the sights of a child." Hoppo consistently forgot, or had never remembered in the first place, the commander traveled with his daughter. She was sickly and she slowed everything down. Hoppo told the commander as much.

Tei Weng's face hardened slightly along his jaw. "Be back by noon." He dismissed Hoppo with a wave but the man's back was already in retreat.

Hoppo returned to his own tent, bouldering inside. He collected two throwing blades and an axe. He walked back out, headed toward Ping's tent. He spoke gruffly from outside the front flap. "Ping, I'm going back to the outlook." There was no response. "You coming?"

Silence. "Fine, I'll be at the same pass we hiked yesterday."

Better to have no company. That meant the girl would be his alone and he could claim the profit from the boy. He didn't care about the child, it would be easier to kill him on the trail than carry the weight of useless kid all the way to Omashu. He didn't have the patience to convince one their buyers a kid was worth rearing before you got any return. With optimism caking his heart, Hoppo set out.


	3. Chapter 3

It was the absence of Tonne's snoring that woke Raika. Mornings were never a flattering time of day for her. Her mother had always risen with sun, sternly alert the moment rays reached beyond the horizon. Raika had not inherited this trait.

"Sorry to disturb you, Raika." Tonne apologized as he stood and straightened his tunic.

"Not at all, Tonne." Raika's voice was blotchy from lack of use overnight. She rubbed her eyes before standing to join Tonne. "How are you feeling? You slept the whole night through."

Raika was always perfectly polite to her patients. She knew the town _tolerated _her family's presence. She knew her healing abilities encouraged villagers to overlook their gold eyes and to more readily accept the stories of mixed heritage, lost parents, and refugees. Adding cushioning layers of politeness was a matter of pragmatism. And Raika considered herself highly pragmatic. But it was also just nicer being nice. She supposed she was becoming mature at twenty-two.

"I would offer you a sleep potion for tonight, but I've depleted my stores. I'm set to hike up the mountain today for more ingredients. I'd like to have a new batch ready next week, you can inform the town." Tonne nodded but looked a little unsatisfied.

"I could sleep for another whole I day, I think. But work calls." He unfurled his apron and strung the top over his head.

"Yes, I remember you have some berry pies to sell." Tonne's finger were still stained. "Tonne, you're welcome to come back here tonight. Anyone who is struggling is welcome, though I cannot promise to ward off the elusive buzzing forever."

"That's very kind, Raika." Tonne seemed a little more distant in the morning, in his right mind.

"In fact, I thought I might run into miners in the mountains yesterday, but there was nothing. No noises out of the ordinary and no signs of digging."

Tonne started, something in him seemed to snap together.

"You think the noise is coming from the mountains?" He asked in a uncharacteristically transfixed manner.

"I don't think there is a noise," she explained gently. "But the primary difference between your house and mine is proximity to the range. If there was a chance of locating a source, it would likely be found there."

"The noise is nightly. You went up in the mountains during the day."

"Well, yes."

"Raika..." Tonne was somber. More contemplative Upper Ring chef than village baker. Raika couldn't think of what Tonne was struggling to say. Was he asking her to hike the mountain at night? It might eventually come to that anyway, but she'd like some reinforcement from the townsfolk at least.

"Raika, I have something I feel I should tell ya."

"Alright, Tonne." She was becoming more bemused by the moment.

"When you were up there, did you come across the old route to Omashu? It's not well traveled since the metal benders help create the express route, but it's used by folks looking to keep more to themselves."

"No, we didn't come across anything like that. It must have been almost completely overgrown." Raika thought she was likely to have noticed such a road, given her learned expertise in covert movement from place to place.

"It doesn't matter." Tonne paused to gather himself, drawing breath into his round body. "You see, I have family, a cousin of sorts who lives North of here. Closer to Republic City." He swallowed, and looked down. "Closer to the old fire nation colonies."

Raika bit back a sharp gasp, schooling her face into impassivity. She waited for Tonne to continue. _Look only mildly interested_, Raika. _Not too alert, not too dissociated._

"There are rumors in the towns up there."

_Not too alert, not too dissociated._

"Well, you see, what I'm trying to say is I think you should be careful." Tonne patted a hand to back of his neck. "I think you should all be careful." He was stuttering through his words.

"We're always careful, Tonne." _Too cherry_, Raika.

"My cousin thinks people have been disappearing. People who look, well you know, look more fire nation than others." There was a beat.

"Disappearing?"

"Yeah, and it doesn't seem to matter whether they were full bloodied fire or not." He looked pointedly at the water basins in the room. "I don't want to see any of you getting hurt."

_Where had this come from, this sudden sincere insistence on her safety? _Raika could not understand what had prompted Tonne to proclaim these rumors to her, to toe on the subject the village had silently agreed to never address. What correlation was there between the buzzing and these rumors?

Oh. "You think there are dangers for me in the mountains?"

"Well, my cousin reckons the rumors are spreading South. As new folks- new rumors- move into the area, maybe new noises do too."

"Thank you, Tonne." Thank you for your candor? Thank you for your soft showing of affection? Thank you for the warning?

"Well, they are just rumors, that's all. And if I were you, I'd be a little more careful with the little one's, ah, _gifts_, as it were, in public, maybe." Tonne's face was now the color of his fingers.

"I think perhaps you are not entirely rested after all, Tonne," Raika dismissed his final comment.

"Perhaps. As I said, it's all just rumors isn't it."

"Rumors only," Raika agreed as she led him to the front of the room. Her hand gently guiding him from the small of his back.

"Oh, well silly me, Raika, I haven't paid you for your services." Raika laughed genuinely at the change in tone.

"I only lent you a cot and the luck of my geographic location. No need for payment."

"Well, I appreciate the bed nonetheless. Take care, Raika." She saw him out the front door and down the porch steps.

"You as well, Tonne," she called to his retreating figure.

Raika closed the door firmly, her hand resting on the last lock. Rumors. Raika knew they usually had lineage back to a true parent. And so with the waxing sun came a new rising pit of foreboding.

* * *

The silhouette of a flying bison streaked across the noonday sun. The citizens of the fire nation capital were not altogether unused to the sight of the Avatar's companion, but it still baited their attention as the bison descended lower into the city before crossing over the golden gates of the palace courtyard.

Appa landed with thud in a manicured lawn, dotted with ponds and impeccable shrubbery trimmed and coaxed into the shape of dragons. Avatar Aang dismounted from the bison's back, scratching a particular spot under Appa's right ear as he slid gracefully to the ground, aided only a little by air bending.

"Aang!" a voice bellowed from the corner of the courtyard as the Firelord walked into the sun, a golden crown glistening in his topknot.

"Zuko!" Aang joyously received his old friend into a tight hug. They pair separated after a moment, still holding one another's forearms.

"Welcome, Aang." Zuko beamed at his friend, eyes darting across the avatar's eyes and smile. "Izumi will be thrilled you're here. Mai too."

"I'll have to take your word for Mai's excitement."

Zuko rolled his eyes. "She really is not that difficult to read, honestly."

"On the contrary, I think she prides herself on her impassivity. And anyway, someone needs to keep their temper in council meetings." Aang clapped Zuko good naturedly on the back as they strode into the palace.

Zuko continued to fill Aang in on the palace's arrivals. "Sokka and Suki came yesterday. Suki has, of course, already launched into solving any last-minute preparations and I believe Sokka has mostly seen the inside of the royal baths." Zuko smiled a cat like grin as he next said, "let's try to catch him, shall we?" He looked the part of a mischievous schoolboy. Aang thought they often slipped into this adolescent role together as neither man had had the luxury of mindless pranks as a child. "You can freeze the water, it'll feel like home for him."

Aang laughed heartily, but slowed his walking, forcing Zuko to turn and consider him. Zuko did not appreciate the regretful look his friend's features had assumed.

"What's wrong?"

Aang sighed and the jovial atmosphere fled with his breath. "Zuko, I take no pleasure in doing this, especially given that we're here to celebrate, but I need to address a matter with you before the day gets any longer."

Zuko either had not noticed the change in his friend or was vainly hoping to forestall the week being sunk by official business. He kept this speech light, mismatched to Aang's new seriousness. "Of course, say anything." Zuko opened his hands, indicating the conversation could be had in the hallway.

"I think this is more a matter for the council room," he confessed as Zuko's shoulders deflated. Zuko began resigning himself to face whatever fresh crisis Aang was bringing to his home.

"You're sure it can't wait?" Aang smiled sadly and apologetically and pathetically. Zuko grumbled. Nonetheless, he straightened his crown and smoothed the sides of his hair down. "Lead the way, Avatar." Zuko gestured for Aang to begin the path to the council chambers.

* * *

Once the pair seated themselves around the table, a fire ablaze in the pit at the middle, Aang leaned forward to rest his chin on his clasped hands.

"I've just come from the Northern Earth Kingdom."

"Yes." Zuko obviously knew this information and his tone was flat.

"While there, well while speaking with the locals, I heard some rumors." Aang tried to conceal a gulp. "Now don't react badly, I have not been able to confirm any of these rumors," there was a pause, "but I did meet lots of people rather convinced they were true." Aang wanted to cut off his friend's reaction with as many euphemistic warnings as possible. His tactic did not have the intended effect.

"Stop stalling."

"Zuko, there seems to be a rumor among Earth Kingdom townspeople that their fire nation peers are going missing."

"Missing?" Zuko's brow drew close.

"That anyone with fire nation ancestry has just disappeared."

"I'm sorry? Who exactly is 'going missing'? Fire nation citizens? Colonists? Earth kingdom citizens with mixed heritage?"

Aang quietly and quickly informed that "it would appear to be all of the above."

"Missing? As in what exactly?" Zuko demanded.

"As in homes left without anything being taken, no letters or notes, no discussions of moving. Just people gone."

"And how many townspeople did you hear this rumor from?" Zuko's tone conveyed that he did not at all trust chatter of Earth kingdom villagers.

"Well, it began in the coastal towns along the northwestern portion of the kingdom. And by the time we reached Republic City, it was all anyone wanted to talk about."

"And who exactly are you receiving this intelligence from?" Zuko was still unprepared to see truth in any of these rumors.

"Their friends, neighbors, sometimes families."

Zuko made a tutting noise from the back of his throat. "I'm sure not all the talk was sympathetic to those allegedly 'missing.'"

"No, it wasn't." Aang might once have looked abashed admitting to the hate other kingdoms held for the fire nation, but he and Zuko together had witnessed insults, threats, and harm done to fire nation persons. There was no sense in pretending the world had healed.

Aang continued, "I am more concerned now that Toph has also written me. She says her parent's friends have suddenly acquired new servants, servants who appear to be fire nation and seem more slave than servant."

"What are you even saying, Aang?" Zuko ruggedly swept a hand across his brow. "Are you trying to tell me you think there is a slave market of fire nation people?" He was incredulous. "That could never remain secret."

"We might be in the process of secret recovery right now." Aang countered as Zuko pushed back from the table and shook his head, crown sharp in the fire's light.

"I'm sorry, we need to address this at a later time, maybe when either of us have proof of such a thing, which I highly doubt exists."

Aang persisted. "Based on Toph's intel, we think there might be a sale in Omashu soon."

"A slave market? I still don't...this is...?"

"Zuko, I think this a lead we cannot ignore." Aang proceeded in gentle firmness. "We need to already be on the road to Omashu. We need to mobilize."

"Aang, my daughter is getting married in a week's time, I cannot just leave. I am needed _here_." He stamped his foot on the council room floor, the table's flames sparking upward.

"I would not ask this of you unless I felt certain our failure to act could lead to disaster. Loss of lives, another war-."

Zuko cut in. "War? Slaves? this is.. there is no way this theory is correct." But Aang knew he was relenting. Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose.

He suddenly slammed both hands down on the table, leaving scorch marks in his wake.

"Guards," Zuko demanded. Two soldiers opened the door, standing at attention. "Send me General Mahn. Tell him to come in travel armor and that he will be accompanying the Avatar and myself on the briefest of journeys to the Earth Kingdom." If he had to chase these Agni forsaken rumors he was going to start immediately. Zuko promised himself he would be back in time to see Izumi down the aisle.


	4. Chapter 4

Shortly after Tonne left, Raika heard the familiar patter of Mozu's feet darting around his room. Between her patients and living with two fire benders, it was unlikely Raika would ever sleep past dawn again in her life. She mourned this loss deeply. The footsteps navigated the upstairs hallway, down the flight of stairs into the living room, and then burst into the clinic.

"Mom!" Mozu exclaimed. He ran forward, latching around her legs.

"Mozu!" Raika kindly matched his level of enthusiasm. He nuzzled further into her side as she ruffled his black hair.

Raika was not technically Mozu's mother, just as she was not Xan's wife. In the beginning, it had been a matter of ease and safety to assume to the familial roles. But over two years past and it seemed even titles of legal or blood bonds could not encompass their relationships. Even if Raika and Xan were not romantically promised to each other, they were still life partners. And even if neither were the biological parents to Mozu, he was still their child. There was too much heartache witnessed and love given to have anything less.

Raika considered the night they had found Mozu; it was not a pleasant memory. Raika and Xan themselves had only been traveling together for a few months after an intense introduction in the lower ring of Ba Sing Se. (That had been an equally unpleasant memory).

* * *

Raika did not know the exact details of the events leading up to her introduction to Xan, but she was familiar with the broad strokes of the history.

She knew that Xan had been on his own since he could remember, a transient kid moving between shelters and street gangs in the seediest parts of the city. He was handsome from an early age, tall and muscular with thick curls and dark brows set over eyes melting between green and gold. It was an exotic look and one that a brothel owner had sought to capitalize on early.

Xan had worked servicing male clients of all sorts. It was exceedingly dangerous for an untold number of reasons, all of which culminated in the ultimate fact that same sex relations were intensely criminalized by the Earth Kingdom military. Xan had gotten too close with one of his callers, an aristocratic son from an Upper Ring family. The couple had eventually been found out and the son shipped across the kingdom for a hastily arranged marriage to a new money merchant's daughter in Omashu. For Xan, there was a military warrant.

Raika crossed paths with Xan at a bar. She was nineteen and weary of spending too long in any place. He was a twenty something drunk who'd never left the lower ring, a child of an earth kingdom woman and a fire nation soldier. The types of bastards no one pitied. Raika immediately recognized him as both the drunkest man in the place and someone of clear fire nation heritage, like herself. He was the exact type of liability she did not take chances around and she took a seat as far from him as she could find. Even with the distance of the whole bar, she would have to have been aloof in the extreme not to understand he was the topic of everyone's conversations. There were choice slurs about gay men, children born out of wedlock, and fire nation descendants. And more distressingly, much talk about warrants and arrests and prison camps.

Raika wanted no part in the foreshadowed confrontation and began to pick her way through to the exit. But she had not been swift enough: the doors were thrust open, barely contained in their hinges, by a pair of Dai Li agents. They shoved Raika to the side along with anyone else in preventing a clear bath to the bar. Xan barely turned to face the agents, raising only a solo eyebrow at the man closest to him.

"Sorry," Xan quipped, "I'm all booked out tonight unless you're willing to outbid one of the other blokes."

The Dai Li agent punched Xan with a fist of rock and the crunch sent needles up Raika's body. It was a horrid but familiar sound and suddenly Raika was no longer at the bar; she was twelve and there was her mother's ragged breathing, the whoosh of fists in the air and thump against flesh. Hurt everywhere.

Someone shouted, "STOP," and Raika did not realize the yell had come from her until the entire establishment turned to look at her. She let only a beat pass, then she was picking her way over to Dai Li agent and the empty bar stool Xan had crumpled from. _You've volunteered yourself as a player in this cluster, now find a way to end it._

"I didn't realize intoxication in a bar was criminalized," she began, adopting a slight lower ring accent. "You'll have arrest all of us I suppose." She gestured around cartoonishly.

The Dai Li agent scrutinized her, his stare lingering on her golden eyes. "There is a warrant for this man's arrest, step aside immediately." The Dai Li turned back to Xan's form on the ground.

Raika was undeterred. "Oh, what's he done now? Cheated another poor sod out of a gambling game? Hardly the first lower ring drunk to do so." She shrugged her shoulders in a stupid a rhythm, hoping to impart that she was not a threat. Just another random peasant stuck with a drunkard husband.

The Dai Li whirled around to face her, drawing himself up within inches of her face.

"This man is wanted by her majesty for crimes of moral turpitude. Stand aside or you will be brought in as an accomplice."

"Crimes of moral turpi- what?" She intentionally misspoke. "My husband is not smart enough to pull off whatever that is." Raika added a hollow chuckle. "Just let me take him home and we'll promise not to offend anymore of your highbrow morals."

"Your husband." It was statement, one caked in disdain.

Raika countered, "Look, it's clear he's not the greatest catch, but yes, we're married."

"Where is your ring, Madame?" A second Dai Li had joined the conversation. She knew he intended the word "Madame" to mock her.

"He pawned it off for booze." Raika was beginning to let the act of a 'little old me and my stupid husband' turn stony, but backing down now would only see her arrested for obstruction of justice. "I'll collect him now, thank you for your service gentlemen."

"Back off, fire bitch." The Dai Li drew pebbles from the floor to create rocks of fists, falling into a fighting stance.

"All this for a drunk husband?" Raika inquired flatly. She knew combat was not her strength, she was a far more accomplished healer. But she let her bending feel for the water in her traveling pouch and in patron's glasses at the table.

"This man is a wanted criminal," the Dai Li continued. "And you are being arrested for aiding and abetting."

"Risks of modern marriage, I guess." Raika ducked under the agent's swinging fist as the second man encased her feet with earth. In moments, Raika used her bending to knock glasses of water off the counter. She drew the liquid into the rocks at her feet before freezing it in the crevices of the stone. The expansion of the element cracked through the rocks, freeing her, and she moved toward Xan's body on the ground. Raika toppled another glass of water onto him, trying to shock him back into consciousness. She was happy to hear sputtering and coughing. Raika jerked him to his feet.

The Dai Li were dumbfounded by the water bending. Water benders were rare after their decimation at the Southern Pole and travelers from the Northern Tribe did not frequent the lower rings of the city. The agents pivoted to face the crowd, turning away from Xan and Raika.

"Who did that?" They demanded. "Who here is a water bender?"

No one moved, save for Raika and Xan slipping through strangers and upturned bar stools behind the backs of the Dai Li.

"Answer me," the first man shouted, control running from his voice. "Who did that?"

The Dai Li spun around, demanding attention and responses from the entire bar. His eyes locked with Raika's and she froze briefly, her foot raised in anticipation of navigating broken glasses. She watched his realization dawn.

"Run," she whispered into Xan's ear as she latched onto his wrist and yanked him behind her. They burst out into the night, looking upon a square with a fountain. Raika drained the fountain's water, crafting a makeshift slide of ice that she threw herself and Xan onto. They picked up speed instantly, pulling away from the Dai Li but also rapidly approaching the end of the ice path and the end of any foreseeable escape route.

Until this point, Raika assumed she was carrying around a dead weight drunkard and that any chance of survival rested solely on her. But the yelps of Dai Li agents behind her forced Raika to look back. Xan was both hurtling plumes of fire the agents while melting the beginning portions of the slide, preventing them from also taking an express ride. Raika quickly drew the puddled water from the ground and created more track in front of her. They continued this back and forth of melting and re-icing until they could no longer see or hear the Dai Li. Raika was both immensely thankful for Xan's fire bending and also aware it made their activities a thousand times more criminal. Fire bending was expressly forbidden in the lower ring under the guise of wanting to prevent the spread of fire in such close quarters.

Raika and Xan stood and ducked into a darkened alleyway. She was intending to suggest they divide up, it would harder for the Dai Li to trace and Raika was experiencing monstrous regret at having found herself evading the law. Again. But before she could speak, Xan grabbed her hand and pulled her through a maze of backyards and side streets. They stopped at the city's outer wall and before Raika could even process resignation, Xan began pulling loose rocks from the masonry. Raika saw that the rocks were almost indercinably smoother and lighter in color than the ones comprising the rest of the wall. They came off easily and Raika guessed they were excavating a smuggler's tunnel. Once Xan had cleared a large enough space for a person to squeeze through, he stepped inside the gap and gestured for Raika to follow. She did not hesitate.

* * *

After that night, Raika and Xan had fallen into a quick and easy companionship. She healed his head injuries and did not ask about the nature of his warrant or past. He did not ask about her water bending. They were good travel partners, both resourceful, willing to complete hard or dirty work for money or food, and respectful of each other's silences. But for all of this, Raika was still not sure how long they would travel together. Then Mozu came.

The pair were camping in a wooded area northeast of Gaoling. They were near a river many women and children had come to during the day to collect water and do their washing. When Raika heard the crying, she assumed some harried mother had forgotten a child. She shook Xan awake and told him her suspicions.

"You stay here and watch the camp, I'll go find the kid," Xan directed her.

When he came back holding a distinctly fire nation child, his features contained a quiet fury. He passed the toddler to Raika who noted the bruising and swelling all along the boy's too boney body. He was barely awake. She quickly stripped him of his soiled rags and waded into the river with him in her arms. She ran her water all along his body, soothing the bruises and attending to a crack in his wrist. Xan silently stood on the bank.

"What happened?" Raika was careful to keep her tone level as she was holding the boy.

Xan did not answer.

"Xan, I asked-."

"I heard you." He ran his hands through his hair and leaned back on his heels before sitting down on a nearby stump.

"He was alone. Not close to the river, and obviously, he doesn't look like any of the villagers we saw today." Xan's words had an edge Raika had not heard him use before. For the first time she considered how others might see him: his height imposing, his bending poised and deadly in the shallows of his wildfire irises.

"Someone left him here and that someone had no intention of retrieving him."

Raika did not know what he wanted her to say. She strengthened her grip on the toddler and met Xan's smoldering gold stare.

"Maybe they were meant to kill him but couldn't finish the job." Xan released a hollow chuckle. "It would not be the first time someone wanted to snuff out a fire nation bastard."

Xan walked away from the clearing and back to camp, becoming as shadow like as the trees which engulfed him. Raika drew all the water off the boy's little body and cradled him to her chest as the waded out of the stream. When she arrived back to camp Xan was seated, staring aimlessly into their campfire. She tried to pass the child to him.

"Here, he needs to be warmed up." Xan considered her a moment before reaching out and taking the toddler. He laid the little chest on his own as he raised his core temperature.

That night Xan and Raika slept with the boy between them, Xan occasionally pulling him close to give warmth and Raika ready to sooth any fussing with a glove of water against his forehead. In the morning, she tried to coax a name out of the child.

"Do they even speak at that age?" Xan asked incredulously, watching her twelfth attempt. His see-sawing attitude toward the kid was giving Raika a migraine. First there was a savior complex. Then a doting caregiver. Then a detached observer. Then disdainful put upon traveler. Raika was trying to be forgiving; she understood the kid was the living embodiment of Xan's own traumas. She knew what it was like to both want to avoid remembering how the universe had treated her and wanting to make sure no one was victim to the same. But Agni almighty, she needed Xan pull himself together and face reality. A third, utterly dependent, person had joined their party and it didn't feel as if the circumstances would change quickly. They couldn't leave the boy just as much as they couldn't return him to a potentially murderous group of villagers.

"As a matter of fact, they do. He has probably amassed a decent vocabulary, enough to understand I'm asking for his name, certainly." She directed this last bit at the toddler.

"Why do you do that?" Xan asked, squinting at her.

"Do what?" Raika was still focused on the boy and her response came reflexively.

"Talk like a noble. You look like a fool." He gestured to her worn brown dress and plain braid. This sharpened her attention.

Maybe it was because she was exhausted. Maybe it was because Xan was exhausting her. But for whatever reason, Raika answered with the unflinching truth.

"Because I am the direct descendent of two royal bloodlines." She stared at Xan until he barked out a laugh.

"Oh, me as well. Crowned prince of the lower ring urchins, of the wineaux region." Xan flourished his arms grandly and Raika gave him a smile. These truths were safer unbelieved. Her factiousness was not worth the disclosure, and she let her proclamation die as a joke.

In the end, they decided to call the boy Mozu. Xan flipped through her copy of _The Four Kingdom in Nature _and found the chapter on Shrikes, declaring the child was just like the "butcher birds" of his namesake.

"Xan, he has not butchered our plans. That would require us to have plans." Raika noted.

* * *

Despite his enthusiastic early morning greeting, Mozu had categorically refused to go on another hike. She knew it was a categorical refusal because Mozu stumbled through the syllables, pronouncing "cat-raw-gory-lic" as he informed her of his decision.

"You can go tell your father I see straight through his plan: send in a cute messenger and hide like a coward upstairs," Raika told Mozu.

"Ah, but darling, how can that be the plan if I am the cutest messenger?" Xan entered the clinic looking fresh faced and unfairly handsome. He scooped Mozu into arms and the pair became perfect caricature of regret.

"And what's that Mozu? You've hurt your leg?" Xan pretended to listen to an imaginary complaint. "Well, sorry Rai, our hands are tied."

"Alright, alright. Maybe the two of you should stay in and practice some bending control." She remembered Tonne's earlier allusion to Mozu's fire.

"We're the picture of control."

"This is not a joke."

"What do you say, Mozu? Mom wants us to stay home today and practice together." Mozu looked very pleased to both avoid another hike and to be included in a grown up's scheming. "What a thoughtful idea, Raika."

Raika rolled her eyes. It was just as well, she figured. It was better to leave to the fire benders at home as she went back into the mountains. If there was any trouble, she would be less of a target. Moreover, Raika did not yet want to disclose her discussion with Tonne. Xan did not need to be disturbed with shapeless rumors and speaking the fear aloud would only make it more corporal. Better to investigate alone.

"I'll be back by sundown. Be careful and no burning down the house when the water bender is away." Raika grabbed her satchel, slinging it over her shoulder.

"Be safe," she told Xan. He nodded, distracted by trying to convince Mozo that the tip of his thumb was, in fact, Mozu's stolen nose.

Raika fondly shook her head and headed out into the day.

* * *

It did not take long for Hoppo to see the woman again. She was still focused on flower picking like a brainless heathen. It amazed him that all women were not air benders. Their heads were full of nothing else. Hoppo was annoyed that she was alone. The ensuing struggle would be a disappointment if it was one on one. Especially man against woman.

Boring.

Hoppo did, however, take small solace in the shape of her lips. Full and sculpted. They would please him tonight. But the rest of her face was a disaster. Her eyes were a most pungent shade of gold and an ugly scar ran from her eyebrow down through her upper cheek. He had been too far to see it yesterday. Hoppo guessed it was a dagger wound and he vowed to be especially brutal, unwilling to let whoever had cut her first be the more savage man.

Hoppo tracked her easily throughout the morning, bending the parched earth soft to dampen his footfalls. She sometimes paused, starting at the sound of some animal moving in the brush or snapping a twig. Hoppo fantasized about her lips parting in fear when he revealed himself. He began to move closer to her. He intentionally kicked a rock. He liked the way she whirled around trying to locate the source of the noise. He liked the way she finally seemed overcome by an unaccountable fear. Liked the way she tightened her satchel strap. Liked the way it dug into her chest. Liked the way she stumbled down the path. Liked the way her lips opened when he stepped onto the trail.

* * *

Raika knew she was being watched. She had known it for the better part of an hour. She also knew she needed to find a water source. If she tried to hike down now, she'd be fighting with only the water she'd brought in her pouch. If she could find a stream, a creek, a stagnant puddle even, she would stand a chance. And if she could show the stalker her water bending, maybe that would diffuse any confrontation. _I am not a threat. I know what I look like. I know _who _I look like. But see, I'm water inside._

When Raika heard the rock ricochet across exposed roots and skid through dead leafs she read the sign clearly: _your time is up_. She pulled open her satchel, latching onto the pouch inside. The water swarmed her fingers, her hand remaining hidden within the bag. The time for preventative water bending was past, now she needed to keep any advantages secret.

From the woods emerged a boulder of man. The squareness of his body should have made his movements clumsy, but he crept with the stillness of a predator. Raika had no illusions about who was the prey. He smiled at her, a mouth full of gnashed and pitted teeth. His eyes roamed her entire body and she felt like she had just been doused in mildew and mud.

"Nice to see you again," the man said.

"We haven't meant." Raika's voice betrayed no emotion.

The man began to move in a circle, forcing Raika to match his steps to maintain distance.

"No," the man conceded, "but I've seen you before." He stopped circling. "Who could forget that little fire nation family."

Raika's stomach jerked. _No, no, no_. Suddenly, the parameters of this encounter had shifted. Raika's priority was no longer leaving the mountain alive, but keeping this man away from Mozu and Xan. She could tell in the man's lengthening smile that he sensed her panic.

"And where are they today?" His tone was mockingly pleasant.

Raika stayed silent.

"Didn't your husband tell you not to walk alone?"

Then the man was lunging toward Raika, hands aiming for her neck. She froze the water around her fingers into daggers and shot them blindly at his hurtling body. Two struck the man's face, drawing crimson. It was enough to make him pause as he reached up to touch the cuts. He tasted the blood, the red making his lips look like dehydrated clay.

"Throwing knives?"

The man seemed perversely pleased with Raika. He lunged again and she tried to side step the attack as a pillar of earth shot into her jaw. She stumbled to the ground where soil instantly encased her hands. She felt a kick to her ribs and heard the crack. The pain did not immediately come, there was too much adrenaline coursing through her as she kept fighting. Raika swept her legs to the side, throwing a sheet of ice at the man's ankles. It sliced though his woolen pants and left superficial wounds on his legs. He staggered to the right, staring blankly at the frozen element. Raika used his hesitation to kick water into his face, turning it to ice around his teeth. When he hissed and fell back, clawing at his mouth, Raika knew she'd rightly guessed his mangled smile was full of exposed nerve endings.

She felt the earth around her fists loosen in his pain and she sprang up, pulling the sheet of ice into two sword points. She thrust the ice toward the man's chest in the same moment she saw one of his hands leave his mouth. With a flick of his left wrist a band of rocks fused and flew toward Raika. They encased her throat like a choker necklace, crushing her breath. She ice swords fell as she focused everything on the water around his teeth, feeling all their serrated points. She forced the ice into every crevice. Raika could feel his nerves pulsating through his gums. She could feel the pumping of his blood mixing with the rush of her own pulse, deafening in her head...

"STOP! I said STOP!"

The pressure around Raika's throat lifted and she crumpled, wheezing. On the ground she heard a reverberation just above her back and felt rubble rain down around her body. There was a second crash, more debris, and she realized rocks were doing battle above her. Raika twisted onto her side and watched as a slender man bent stones into the path of boulders the attacker aimed at Raika.

"Seize him." The pounding ceased and Raika shifter further to see the man encased to the neck in rock. He made a guttural noise Raika associated with fatally wounded animal.

There were others standing behind the new comer. More men with weapons and traveling packs. Some were mounted on ostrich horses. The leader walked forward before kneeling over Raika. He swept her loose hair out of her eyes, in the way a man might assess his prized livestock.

He studied her briefly before asking, "are you a water bender?"

Raika could not imagine the point in lying. It was a question he already knew the answer to as a witness to the fight and a part of her still clung to some fleeing chance her bending would save her. She nodded.

"Show me." Raika moved to sit up, feeling the ache clearly in her ribs. The man pressed her back into the ground, not allowing her to rise. _Fine_. Raika paused before turning her head to side and watching her outstretched wrist curve, drawing fallen water up from the earth and into a miniature spout. The man, apparently satisfied, stood and indicated for two new men to haul Raika to her feet. One of the them unsheathed his blade and held it against her back.

The man addressed her attacker. "Hoppo, we are leaving." He let the earth fall away, unleashing a man closer to a mad rhino that a human. Hoppo slid into fighting stance.

"She's mine, Tei Wang" he growled. The taller man was unmoved.

"She belongs to the group."

With these words he motioned for the two men holding Raika to walk her through the throng of men who had arrived behind Tei Wong. She lurched and dug her heals into the ground, feeling the blade press against her. Her captor didn't did not speak, the mounting pressure of the sword spoke for him. _Move_. Raika allowed herself to be pushed forward incrementally.

"I am not a possession." She tried channeling her mother's most scathing tone as she said this. The men only laughed. She heard someone cackle, "finders keepers, love."

She was pushed further and further through the group. Men who mostly looked like earth kingdom, maybe a few water tribe, sneered at her. Raika wanted to fight back with all her strength. She wanted to attack and run and die trying. But the thought of keeping the men on the trail, of passing around and not through her village, of keeping this group away from Xan and Mozu was overpowering. Her helplessness was numbing as she allowed herself to be lead to the rear of the group and to the cages taking shape in the distance.


End file.
